


Bird Watching

by dayquil_and_nyquil



Category: Creepypasta - Fandom, Marble Hornets
Genre: Eventual Romance, F/M, Slow Burn, also please bare with us we're in college but we'll update as often as possible, maybe graphic violence we don't know yet, this is a comedy babyyy, we're just kinda going with the flow right now
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-13
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-02-24 16:55:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21781303
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dayquil_and_nyquil/pseuds/dayquil_and_nyquil
Summary: ***Disclaimer: this is our interpretation and our opinion of how Marble Hornets should have gone! Heavily influenced by the MH storyline with our own spin on it! We don’t own any characters besides the two we added (you’ll know when you see them). A reminder that this is just for fun and to stretch our creative limits. Also possibly the Most Accurate (plot-wise) Marble Hornets fanfic you’ll ever read. Enjoy!***
Relationships: Amy/Alex Kralie, Brian Thomas/Original Character(s), Timothy "Tim" Wright/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 7





	1. Chapter One

“Hey wait up!” Brenna called out to the girl in front of her. The girl in question was currently barreling headfirst towards a telephone pole and didn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

“You don’t understand, I found the perfect thing for us to do this summer. Weren’t you the one complaining about potentially being bored all summer long?” Maggie, Brenna’s friend and roommate, asked with a hum.

“Yeah, but I was just going to find a job or something. We kind of need the money,” Brenna scuffed her shoe on the sidewalk.

“Yeah maybe, but that’s so boring! Don’t you wanna live a little?” Maggie nudged Brenna’s shoulder with a grin.

“No.”

“Wait are you serious?”

“Well, I mean, yes and no.”

“C’mon, you don’t want to work an eight-hour shift in a grocery store five times a week, right?”

Brenna paused. “What did you have in mind?”

“Look!” Maggie motioned to the flyer on the pole. “Some kid’s trying to shoot a student film and we totally should try out. It’ll be something fun to do and we’ll meet new people. We can’t stay reclusive forever.” Maggie grinned, looking at Brenna with pleading eyes. “C’mon please,” she whined.

Brenna took a minute to scan over the flyer before finally responding, “We aren’t getting paid for this are we?”

“No...but that shouldn’t matter. This will be more fun than a boring job. I promise I’ll get a job too, but this sounds like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Plus, I’m not aiming for the lead role anyway, I’m sure there will be time for both,” Maggie pointed out. “Don’t you wanna see your name in lights?” She wrapped her arm around Brenna’s shoulders, “Or at least in the credits of some shitty college film.”

“I guess that would be fun.”

“And besides,” Maggie sings, “What if cute guys are there?”

“You know my true weakness.” Brenna smiles.

“Of course I do, we’re practically the same person.” Maggie teases with a playful grin.

Brenna flips the flyer over a few times and gasps, “What time is it again?”

“Time for you to get a watch.”

“No, really.” Brenna groaned.

“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe 6:30.”

“Well, auditions end at 7 so, if we’re doing this, we better get moving,” Brenna said raising an eyebrow as Maggie’s eyes widened.

“Let's go then!” Maggie grabbed Brenna by the hand and broke out into a run, effectively pulling the taller girl behind her.

The girls broke out in a sprint as they crossed the road and struggled to unlock their car. After throwing their bags into the backseat and starting the engine, the girls were off to their college’s meeting hall.

Once they parked hastily and ran into the building, they were greeted by two men walking out of a classroom a few yards ahead. “Hey,” Brenna stopped the man closest to her in the hallway, “Is this where the auditions for Marble Hornets are being held?”

The man flashed a half-smile, “Yeah, it’s room 168. Are you guys trying out?”

“Yeah, if we aren’t too late. I’m scared we might’ve missed it.”

“Oh don’t worry about that. My buddy Alex is the director and he’ll totally let you audition. I’m Brian, by the way, and this is Tim. We just came from trying out.”

The second man, Tim, began to rock back and forth on his heels and huffed.

“Nice to meet you,” Brenna reached out to shake his hand and Maggie did the same.

Tim opted to wave a hello instead.

“Well, we better get going. We don’t want to be even more late,” Maggie nudged Brenna.

“Right. Nice meeting you again, and maybe we’ll cross paths in the future.”

“Yeah, if we get the part.”

“Listen, if Tim can get a part, you guys will have no problem.” Brian laughed.

Tim ran his hand through his hair, “Yeah, to be honest, I’m not the best actor in the world, but I think Alex might be desperate for people.”

The group chuckled, which eased the girls’ stress significantly. After waving and saying their goodbyes (“Break a leg! You’ll do great!” Brian cheered), Maggie and Brenna found the room. Alex, or whom they assumed to be Alex, was cleaning up papers around the table. A camera was set up on a tripod behind a desk in the center of the room and still seemed to be rolling. Maggie cleared her throat to get his attention. “Good afternoon, I’m sorry we’re so late but my friend and I were hoping to audition for your film.”

Alex seemed genuinely surprised that two other people wanted to audition. He quickly gathered himself and welcomed the girls in with a tight-lipped smile. “Of course. Welcome.” He informed both Maggie and Brenna that they would most likely get put in small roles and gave them lines to read. Alex seemed pleased with their performance and judging by the empty sign-in sheet, save Brian and Tim’s names and emails, the girls knew they got the parts.

Stepping out of the fluorescent-lit room into the hallway, Maggie was shocked to see that the men from earlier were still waiting there. Brian gave them a smile seeing them come out of the room and Tim seemed to only glance their way, choosing not to get up from the locker he was leaning on. “Welcome back! How’d it go?” Brain asked almost immediately.

“Really well, I think we got the parts.” Brenna hummed proudly, “What are you both still doing here, though?”

“Brian was wondering if you two would like to grab dinner with us,” Tim spoke up from behind the taller male. “Get to know the newest additions to the cast.”

“Really? That’s nice of you both!” Maggie’s eyes lit up at the idea of not only dinner but also the fact that the pair made some new friends. “We don’t wanna intrude if it was just a friend thing though.”

“Nah, we invited you didn’t we?” Tim gave a sideways smile, putting his hands inside the pockets of his jacket.

“Well, then we’d be more than happy to join you both.” Maggie gave Tim a smile back before looking at Brenna. “What do you say? Do we have time for dinner?”

\---

That was three years ago.

Three years ago everything was simple and no one knew just how chaotic Marble Hornets would turn out to be.

To put it simply, the movie ruined everything for everyone involved.

One by one, the cameramen and actors left the movie like clockwork. Alex became aggressive and cynical and canceled Marble Hornets abruptly. He soon transferred colleges and no one has heard from him since.

Maggie and Brenna did the same only a month into production. They moved a few counties over and transferred colleges with no explanation.

They got a new apartment in a safe neighborhood and stable, well-paying jobs at the local coffee shop (“It’s called The Bean!” It’s something Brenna is very fond of).

This is life Maggie and Brenna are currently leading until Jay Merrick pops back into their lives with nothing short of trouble following his wake.

\---

Jay Merrick is staying at a hotel.

Ever since his apartment burned down under mysterious circumstances, things haven’t been going smoothly.

Well, things haven’t been going smoothly since he began uploading Alex’s old Marble Hornets tapes, but losing all his stuff in a fire really sucks ass.

Since uploading Alex’s tapes to his YouTube cleverly named “Marble Hornets”, Jay has had his fair share of bad luck come his way.

The discovery of a tall, faceless, supernatural, demon thing terrorizing his friends was jarring enough as is but now that a second YouTube channel, “totheark”, has begun posting videos to scare Jay off, it’s been hell on earth.

Jay has been staying at a hotel for a solid two or three weeks now but after receiving a mysterious text message from an unknown number, Jay has moved hotels again.

Thanks to an ongoing stalker dilemma, among many other problems, Jay has recently begun to wonder about the worth of continuing his investigation.

Are these tapes worth being stalked over? Dying over?

The answer is probably not.

But that isn’t stopping Jay from pressing on with his dumbassery.

Today is Sunday, April 18, 2010, and Jay has just discovered a package left outside his hotel room.

Jay is what you could call “clown of the day” right now.

He was filming a formal goodbye and resignation from his investigation not a few hours ago and now he’s done a full 180.

Upon seeing two unlabelled tapes in the package, Jay has decided the chaos must continue.

On the first tape, we see a woman holding a camera. She has blonde hair and a bright smile on her features. She spins the camera around to show a very disgruntled Alex working on his laptop. The girl, who Jay finds out is Amy, Alex’s girlfriend, begins to question the whereabouts of said camera. Amy recounts that Alex told her that they didn’t have a camera and Alex insists upon this lie until he sees Amy recording him.

He immediately becomes visibly serious and concerned, demanding to know where Amy found it. Alex’s girlfriend says she found it in a closet with a tape in it that she couldn’t get to play. Alex brushes it off, acting as if he forgot about the camera and barks at Amy to put it back where she found it. Amy grows concerned, and then when the picture splits, that tall faceless demon appears behind them.

Alex and Amy scream and jump out of the window and the last thing that was heard is Alex telling Amy to run and he’d be right behind her. Suddenly, the screen glitches to red and the word HELP appears in all caps with the strange symbol seen on all of Alex’s crazy papers, the letter ‘o’ with an X through it.

Already put off, Jay is almost hesitant to watch the next one, but desperate for answers, Jay puts the tape in and lets it play.

The tape starts off with two girls Jay barely remembers looking rather irritated in Alex’s kitchen. The camera must’ve been left on by accident or else this wouldn’t have been caught on video. The shorter girl is pacing the kitchen like a caged tiger and fanning her flushed face. The taller girl is leaning against the kitchen counter with her arms crossed over her chest, jaw clenched, and her foot tapping on the linoleum floor. Jay thinks he remembers their names correctly, the first one is Maggie and the second one with glasses is Brenna. Maggie is the first to speak.

“Listen, Alex, we just want answers. You’ve been acting really weird lately for no reason and we think we deserve to know what the hell is going on with you.” Her tone was sharp and unpleasant.

Alex raised an eyebrow and very calmly responds with, “What are you talking about? There’s nothing wrong. Are you alright?”

“Oh don’t patronize her!” Brenna barks, standing straight now and gesturing with her hands. “Everyone on set sees how unbearable you’ve gotten! You’re just being an insulting asshole for no reason.”

“I don’t think you know what you’re talking about.” Alex snapped. He took a second to recollect himself and continued, “Besides, you both sound like you might need to step outside and get some air. Do you want some water to calm down?” Alex tried to defuse the situation which seemed to piss both girls off even further.

“You know what Alex?” Brenna’s tone was clipped, “Good luck finding new actors because Maggie and I are leaving! This entire thing has gotten way out of hand.”

Alex seemed to try to get them to stay before laughing them off and announcing that he’ll probably just cut the parts completely because they were so minor. The tape ends with a very furious Maggie and Brenna storming out of Alex’s kitchen and out the front door.

Jay backed away from the camera, stunned by his recent discoveries. It seemed very clear that he had two options: (1) go to the return address that was on the package he received the tapes in or (2) try to find Maggie and Brenna and figure out what happened between them and Alex.

He had absolutely no idea which option he should pursue first or which one would be the safest.

After reflecting, Jay decides to leave it to Twitter to decide his fate.

He sends out a quick tweet explaining a path has diverged in the metaphorical woods and he needs to know which path to take. Jay later uploads the two entries together around 1:30 AM and stays up another hour, wide awake with his stomach flipping over and over again. At some point during his anxiety, he falls asleep and upon waking hours later, his fate has been chosen.

“Okay,” Jay thinks to himself, “Thank God they picked that one.”

\---

Today is Monday, April 19, 2010.

It’s a beautiful day outside. The birds are singing, the flowers outside are blooming. On days like this, Jay is faced with a looming sense of dread.

His Twitter followers voted Jay should track down the girls.

Luckily for him, his ever-present friend, totheark, came to the rescue before Jay even thought about where to begin his search.

As Jay does every morning, he checked to see if anything was posted to the creepy, self-claimed sister channel to Marble Hornets.

A new video was uploaded sometime that morning titled “Lullaby.”

He started the video quickly and the familiar screech of distortion filled his dim hotel room.

At this point, he was almost too accustomed to the sound.

Jay shook himself out of his abstraction and looked at the screen. There was a video of a red bird perching on a tree branch completed engulfed by gnarled, spindly twigs. Jay presumed the video was being filmed somewhere in a forest by the look of the trees in the background. The red bird was singing a cheery whistle, but soon the video glitches and the song turned into a scream.

The bird flew off a moment later.

The screen cut to black and the usual audio distortion Jay was used to played loudly.

“WILL YOU FIND THEM” quickly flashed on the black background.

The picture cuts abruptly to a shot of a woman working behind a glass storefront window. The name of the shop wasn’t in the shot. “They sure don’t like making it easy, do they?” Jay thought to himself. The video switched again to a different video. This time, it was a pale blue, almost gray, bird pecking seeds out of a bird feeder.

It was peaceful for a second before unexpectedly flying away.

“THEY ARE WAITING”

The video screeched again and another cryptic coded message comprised of numbers and letters appeared on the screen. Jay assumed he’d have to crack that code to figure out the location of the two girls.

With a groan, Jay got to work on the video.  
\--

After a multitude of unsuccessful attempts at cracking the encoded messages in the video, Jay found himself having no other option but to turn to social media.

It seemed like an eternity of waiting, of constantly refreshing the page and trying to see if anyone had the answers he had been desperately digging for. Finally, one of his faithful followers sent him a DM saying they think they cracked the code in “Lullaby”. According to the user, the coffee shop was called “The Bean” and it happened to be located a county over from where he was currently residing.

Jay quickly updated his Twitter on the situation, letting them know the code had been solved and he was going to act accordingly to gather another piece to the puzzle.

With a final watch through of the mysterious tapes, he grabbed his trusty camera and car keys and prepared himself for the difficult road ahead. Jay felt like he would be ready for just about anything this journey threw at him, but it’s such a shame that he had no way of knowing just how dark and twisted the future would turn out to be.

\---

Deciding to pick up and hotel hop again, Jay slung his bag over his shoulder and closed the hotel door behind him. “It’s good to keep changing locations.” Jay justified to no one.

The air outside was still a bit crisp from the faint traces of the departing winter season. It was nice. It was still sunny out, but Jay would need to act fast. Between the time it took to decode the message and figuring out where to go next, daylight was running out. Jay preferred to travel in the morning as the sun was rising and the last thing he wanted was to get caught traveling in the dark. Bad things happen in the dark. Jay knew that, but also, did that stop him from continuing on with his dumbassery?

No.

With his handheld camera recording on the dashboard of his car, he pulled out of the parking space and began his journey to “The Bean.” He arrived at a hotel in town within a short walk from the coffee shop just as the sun had set completely.

He did his usual routine when going to a new hotel; checking in and setting up a camera on a tripod placed near the bed. Jay hadn’t been feeling hungry all day, or in general lately, but called room service anyway and ordered chicken tenders and a few candy bars.

As he lay on his bed, wide awake once more, he came to the conclusion that he would find the girls tomorrow morning.

\---

As the morning sun streamed through the curtains and over his face, he had no choice but to wake from one of the best night's sleep he’s had in a while. Jay rubbed his face and could really go for a nice cup of coffee. “That’s a plus about going to find the girls at a coffee shop.” Jay thought as he dragged himself out of bed to get ready for the long day ahead of him.

Making sure his camera was fully charged, Jay grabbed it from its resting place and headed out into the chilly morning air. A few blocks down the road Jay spotted it, “The Bean,” and it already seemed to be bustling with activity. Taking a peek inside, trying to not make it too obvious he was looking for anybody, he saw at least one of the two girls. Brenna chatted away with friendly customers as she made their drinks or fetched their pastries. It was one of the most domestic scenes Jay’s witnessed in a while and took a minute to enjoy the feeling.

However, Jay wasn’t here to enjoy the coffee and welcoming atmosphere. He had a job to do and he was determined to do it right. He tried to discreetly hide his camera and walked up to the counter. Brenna greeted him with a welcoming smile and dropped her gaze for a split second to see Jay’s camera. Her smile faltered for a second and Jay might’ve missed it if he blinked. “Good morning! What can I get you started with this morning?”

“Hey Brenna, I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Jay Merrick. I was the assistant director for a college film - I don’t know if you remember it - it was called Marble Hornets. Alex Kralie was the director. I have some questions about it that I hope you and your friend might be able to clear up.” Jay explained rather quickly, as to not hold up the long line that was forming behind him. “Also I’ll have a large Americano please.” He added at the end.

Brenna blinked a few times in surprise, trying to let all the information that was just rambled at her sink in. She finally responded after gathering herself, “Maggie and I can talk to you after my shift is over if you’re willing to wait. If that’s all, your total is $3.45.”

“Great! Thank you!” Jay tried to hide his relief as he paid for his coffee and found a nice, cozy spot by a window to wait. Brenna’s shift ended around mid-afternoon and she took a seat next to Jay.

“Alright, I called Maggie so she should be over in a few minutes.” Brenna caught sight of Jay’s camera placed on the table pointed in her direction and paused. “Uh - about what you said earlier - what is going on exactly? Maggie and I were barely in the film at all, so I’m not sure we’d be able to answer any of your questions.” Brenna wiped her hands on her apron.

“Well, I’m trying to reboot the series, y’know? Pick up where Alex left off. I had a few general questions to see if I can get a better understanding of why Alex dropped the project and why you two quit.”

“We quit because Alex was being a dickhead.” Maggie chirped, sliding into the open seat next to Brenna. “Long time no see Jay, how’s it going?”

“It’s…” Jay paused before speaking. He can’t exactly say it’s been hell on earth. “Been going.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “So I was watching some old tapes from filming and I noticed you guys had a falling out with Alex, I was wondering why that happened?”

“It’s just, there was a lot of stress on both ends. Maggie and I were dealing with a lot from the break-ins and then Alex started acting strangely on top of that-”

“Break-ins?” Jay interrupted Brenna. “What’s that all about?”

Maggie scoffed at that and Brenna looked down and away. “What’s there to know?” Brenna said sheepishly, “Some guy kept breaking into our house and taking my things. Maggie caught him one night and we basically moved the next day. For safety reasons you know?”

Jay didn’t want to seem to let the topic go and tried not to sound too eager, “Was the guy wearing anything specific or memorable that you can remember?”

“No, not really it was a long time ago,” Maggie mumbled. She seemed to not want to discuss that night. Jay concluded it really must’ve freaked her out, hell it freaked him out when the masked man broke into his house, and he only saw that on cameras. “Plus, what the hell does this have to do with the Marble Hornets stuff?”

Panicking, Jay responds with, “Just trying to get a clear idea of everyone’s backgrounds and experiences with the filming.” He cleared his throat, “Anyway thank you both for answering my questions. You’ve been really helpful. Would you mind swapping numbers with me in case I have any more questions? I’ve only been able to get into contact with you two and Tim so far.”

Maggie’s mood seemed to shift when he mentioned Tim. “Sure.” Maggie shrugged, handing Jay her number. “We’d love to help in any way we can.”

“Thanks.” Jay grinned kindly, “Hopefully I’ll talk to the both of you soon.” Jay stood and swiped his camera off the table and turned to leave.

“Oh wait, before you leave...” Brenna spoke up.

“What’s up?” Jay said, turning back to face them, the camera still in hand and pointed at the girls.

“Are you- Are you filming us right now?”

“Oh, you saw that?” Jay chuckled nervously, “Uh - yeah I just needed to record our interaction so I could remember what you said for the future. It’s really no big deal.”

Maggie winced at that and her face scrunched up, “Well-”

“I’m really sorry, but I have to get going.” Jay panicked. “I should have mentioned it earlier. I’m sorry.”

The girls were silent and eyed the camera some more before Brenna said, “It’s okay. Just don’t go showing anyone that footage. I’m not wearing any makeup today and my bags are probably crazy right now.” Brenna laughed.

Jay sighed in relief and smiled, “Of course. No problem.” He said his goodbyes soon after and left feeling accomplished and ready to explore the return address.

After the girls watched Jay walk down the block, Maggie turned to Brenna and stuck her arms out in exasperation, “What the fuck just happened?”

Brenna shrugged, “I have no idea.”

“Who the fuck goes around filming people like that? I totally didn’t buy his lame-ass excuse too.”

“Yeah, he was filming me earlier when he ordered a coffee. I don’t know what’s going on with him.”

“And did you hear him earlier? Do you really think he talked to Tim?”

“I guess so.”

A moment passed.

“I wonder how he’s doing.”

Another moment passed.

“I wonder how Brian’s doing.”

“Yeah,” Maggie trailed off. The girls sat in silence for a few seconds.

“Anyway I’m hungry-” “-We should get food.” They said at the same time. They laughed and shared a smile.

“Yeah,” Brenna said. “Let’s go.”  
\---

Maggie and Brenna walked back to their shared apartment shortly after and Maggie ran ahead to grab a takeout menu. It was almost pitch black outside so Brenna stayed behind to turn both locks on the door and make sure the security camera facing the door was still lined up. She scooted it a bit for good measure and realized maybe she isn’t so different from Jay. “Hey what’s the holdup?” Maggie called from the living room.

“Just fixing the security camera.” Brenna said while peeking behind the window blinds, “Jay got me thinking again and I think I want another camera set up in-”

“We’ve gone over this before.” Maggie cut her off. “We’re fine. We live in a safe neighborhood, on the second floor of a nice-ass apartment, and nothing has been stolen since we moved, right?”

Something hit a trash can in the darkness outside. Brenna stared into the abyss, “Yeah, but-”

“But nothing. Now come over and tell me what you want for dinner.”

\---

Meanwhile, Jay arrived back at his hotel room and sunk into his bed. He yawned for the first time in what seemed like months and looked at his stationary camera by the bed with drooping eyes.

He’d check the footage in the morning.

\---

Maggie dug a carton of chicken lo mein out of the brown paper takeout bag and passed the bag to Brenna. She took out the container of pork dumplings and wonton soup and held back her drool. “So do you want to watch anything tonight?”

“Y’know, I was thinking and I think it might be interesting if we look up Marble Hornets online.”

Brenna finished devouring a dumpling and grabbed her laptop, “Do you really think something’s gonna come up? It’s been dead for three years.”

“I don’t know, maybe.” Maggie stuck her fork in her lo mein. “But what if something did come up? It’s worth a try.”

“I guess so.” Brenna typed “Marble Hornets” in the Google search bar and the first link to pop up was to a YouTube channel.

“Oh, what’s this?” Maggie said smugly, “Something came up.”

“Yeah, okay. It’s probably someone’s dumb YouTube account though so don’t get your hopes up.” Brenna clicked on the link and got redirected to the channel.

“Why the hell does it look so...spooky?” Maggie murmured, bringing her knees to her chest. Just staring at the icon gave the girl an unsettling feeling.

Brenna shrugged her shoulders as she clicked play on the video titled “Introduction.” That click would be their downfall as the two spent the next two hours watching through the rest of the Marble Hornets videos, completely shell shocked and slack-jawed.

“So this is what Jay’s been doing this entire time...He lied to us,” Brenna said softly, her eyebrows knitting in confusion. “What even are those things?”

“That’s what you’re worried about? I’m more worried that he a) lied to us and b) is totally going to use that footage from the coffee shop!” Maggie practically screeched, shoving her food onto the table in front of them.

“He could find us again…” Brenna’s voice was barely above a whisper, her eyes blown wide as saucers. “Or worse that faceless creature could find us!”

“That’s it! I’m calling him! We demand an explanation!” She declared while blowing her bangs out of her eyes, “and if he doesn’t have a good one, I’m kicking his hammerhead shark looking ass!”

“Maggie that’s a bit harsh.” Brenna rubbed the back of her neck, trying to quell her nerves. “From the videos, it seems like he’s trying to find Alex and help solve whatever is going on. If he can explain himself, maybe we can help?”

“Help?! Are you crazy?”

“Just call him and see what he says.”

Maggie huffed and clicked Jay’s contact in her phone. It rang a few times and on the sixth ring, Jay picked up. He sounded groggy and tired like she had just woken him up from sleeping. Which… She did. Sorry, Jay. Maggie put him on speaker.

“Hello? Everything okay?” He murmured into the phone sitting up in his bed. He turned his head to make sure the camera by his bed was still recording.

“So, Marble Hornets is also a YouTube channel huh?” Jay’s blood ran ice cold in his veins. So much for having a relaxing night. “I mean was the plan to just not tell us and keep making your little videos?”

“Maggie, look let me explain.” Jay began. “I’m sorry for lying to you both, but I was worried you wouldn’t have helped me get the information I needed if I did. You could’ve called me crazy or maybe even call the police or something. Please try to see it from my point of view.” He begged, trying to get her to agree with him. Maggie looked over at Brenna to see what she was thinking.

“He has a point, we might’ve.” Brenna pointed out, putting a hand on Maggie’s shoulder. “It really looks like Alex is in trouble and as much of an asshole as he is, he doesn’t deserve to get hurt or worse.”

“I guess you have a good point…”

“Exactly!” Jay exclaimed over the phone, “I want to find out what’s going on and help him.”

“We wanna help.” Brenna declared stealing the phone from Maggie, “We got your back, Jay.”  
Jay choked on his own spit, “You what?”

“Help. We want to help you,” Brenna said a bit slower.

“Why?” Jay raised an eyebrow, suddenly very aware of the overwhelming silence in his hotel room. The only thing he could hear was his own heartbeat in his ears, and as much as he could use the help in the investigation, Jay couldn’t stop a feeling of dread seep into his heart. “Sorry, I realize I’m not the most trusting person after all this.”

“That’s understandable, we’ve seen what you’ve been through,” Brenna said to try and soothe his nerves as well as his suspicions.

“If I’m being honest,” Maggie chimed in from beside Brenna, “I want to try to reconnect with Tim. I regret leaving him and everyone behind with no explanation. It wasn’t fair to him and I want to apologize. If I don’t see him again over the process of this, I want to do everything I can do to make sure he’s safe and nothing happens to him.” She spoke from the heart and sounded genuinely serious and concerned. Maggie knew if this didn’t convince Jay, nothing would.

“Damn, I just hate my job and want to quit.” Brenna whistled with a teasing smile, “You went all out now, I feel like my reason sucks.”

On the other side of the line, Jay was quiet. He seemed to be contemplating all the pros and cons of the situation. The only con that stood out to Jay was that the girls could be crazy or try to backstab him. However, thinking about Maggie’s authentic apology and the way that both girls looked so scared and frightened about the break-in they experienced, convinced him otherwise. Just like that Jay’s decision was made. He took a deep breath and announced his answer. “Alright, you both can help me. I know I need all the help I can get. I’m staying at a hotel right now I’ll text you the address. See you tomorrow.”

Wide smiles broke out across Maggie and Brenna’s faces, “See you tomorrow!” They chorused as Jay hung up the phone. As scary as the videos are, the girls couldn’t help but find themselves a little excited about a brand new adventure. One that would hopefully lead to more answers than it did questions.

\---

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

To be exact, it is Wednesday, April 21, 2010, and despite being woken up in the middle of the night, Jay was still feeling pretty okay.

Jay threw the covers back and shuffled to his laptop resting on the desk. He did his usual search for any new totheark videos and nothing had changed from yesterday. The swivel chair creaked under Jay’s weight as he leaned back and stretched. Out of the corner of his eye, Jay spotted his stationary camera. “I almost forgot about that,” Jay thought. He shuffled over and checked the footage from yesterday and all last night.

Nothing.

No monsters. No static. No nothing. Just a normal night.

“Whatever. I’ll take what I can get,” Jay thought. Suddenly remembering he had to call Maggie, he found his phone in his jeans and dialed her number.

The phone rang once or twice until Maggie picked up. She, unlike her roommate, happened to be a morning person. Maggie was already up and ready to go at the crack of dawn.

“Hey, Jay. Nice hearing from you again.” She hummed, a small smile spreading across the corners of her mouth.

“Morning, hope you slept alright.” Jay cleared his throat before continuing, waiting to get whatever small talk was left out of the way. “I know I said I’d text but I thought calling you might be safer. For all I know they could be tracking my texts.”

“They could be tracing your calls too.” Maggie pointed out, unhelpfully picking at her fingernails while waiting for her coffee to brew. “But you do you, I guess.”

“Oh,” Jay didn’t even think of that. He chewed his lip thoughtfully before asking if there was a good breakfast place closeby.

“Yeah- Oh, wait one second,” Maggie replied hurriedly.

Jay could hear her rummaging around for a second and then she came back on the phone.

“Sorry, I was fixing myself a cup of coffee. Anyway, Brenna and I like to go to a place called Joe’s. Brenna is literally obsessed with their grits.”

Jay mumbled the name while he scrambled to jot it down on a pad of paper. “Okay, sounds good. Can we meet there in an hour?”

“If I can get Brenna up, sure,” Maggie said.

“You should also bring an overnight bag, by the way. I’m not sure how long you’ll be helping me but you should at least have some things to stay comfortable.”

“Roger that, captain.”

“Okay. See you in a bit.”

“See you then.”

\---

Jay fidgeted in the booth, constantly looking over his shoulder towards the door. He really hoped the girls would arrive soon so his bustling nerves would stop. He never used to be this jittery. “You’re being ridiculous, nothings going to happen when you’re out in the open like this,” Jay thought to himself, nibbling on his lip. The bell on the door snapped him out of his stupor, he turned around again relieved to see that it happened to be the two brunettes whom he’d grown accustomed to seeing.

The girls slid into the booth across from him and Brenna looked around the table with suspicion. “No camera today?” She asked.

“I wanted to ask your permission this time,” Jay pulled his camera out from his bag, “Is it okay?”

“Sure. Thanks for asking,” Brenna said.

Jay placed the handheld camera by the windowsill and looked at the screen to make sure both Jay and the girls were in the shot. When he was satisfied, he pressed record.

“So, what’s our plan?” Maggie said while absentmindedly glancing over the menu.

Jay took that as his cue to do the same and bounced his leg under the table, “A few days ago-”

“Good morning, folks. Can I start you guys off with any drinks?” Their waitress chirped. She had her hair tied back in a tight bun and cherry red lipstick on. She looked bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on the day.

“Water for the table, please,” Maggie said.

“And a coffee,” Jay butted in, “Please.”

“No problem. I’ll be back in a few minutes to take your order,” she said and bounced off to fetch their drinks.

“As you were saying...” Maggie pulled the conversation back on its rails.

“As I was saying,” Jay continued, “someone left a package outside my hotel room and I think that totheark channel-person might’ve sent it. There were two tapes inside, one of Alex and Amy being attacked by the monster and tape of you and Brenna having a fight with Alex.”

“Oh, I remember that. Yeah, that was a doozy,” Brenna chimed in.

“And there was a return address on the package, so that’s my next lead. I was thinking we could drive a few counties over, back to where I came from, and stay in a hotel for a little while,” Jay said.

Just then, the waitress returned with the drinks and set them on the table, “Ready to order?”

Maggie ordered pancakes, Brenna ordered grits and rye toast, and Jay got eggs, sausage, and bacon.

“So that’s it?” Maggie said. “You’re going to go follow this lead blind? What if you get jumped or something? You said it was sent by totheark, right? What if it’s a trap?”

Jay frowned, “It’s still worth investigating. I have to figure out what’s going on.”

“But is it worth getting hurt over this?” Brenna asked.

“You saw the tapes, don’t you want to know what’s happening? What if Alex needs our help?” Jay’s tone became stern and he furrowed his eyebrows.

“You’re right, he could be hurt or trapped or something and no one could know,” Maggie said.

“Yeah, I think we need to act as soon as possible, so that’s why I’m going to the return address tomorrow. You can tag along if you want, just let me know your decision tomorrow morning,” Jay said.

The girls agreed and the conversation quickly shifted to something of less importance like, well, you know, the weather and other dumb topics. The food came and the trio rushed to gorge their food to save themselves from any more awkward ramblings. Well, the girls devoured, but Jay took his time. Jay was amused watching the pair race to stuff as much food as they could in their mouths and still be able to talk about trivial things in between bites. To save the girls some decency, Jay turned the camera off and stowed it back in his bag.

When they were done eating, Jay paid for their meals (“I’m going to slip a $20 in your wallet one day so don’t think you’re getting away with this,” Maggie argued) and gave them directions to the new hotel to meet him at. They waved their goodbyes (“Seriously, Jay, we’re paying you back later,” Brenna fought), got in their separate cars, and went on their way.


	2. Chapter Two

Jay set up his camera on his dashboard and cracked his knuckles. He checked the return address from the package, double-checked it even, just to make sure he would be heading in the right direction. After driving for a while, he pulled up to what looked to be a small, abandoned building. Between the chipped, brick walls, and the open windows, it looked like a crack house that lost its dignity many years ago. Jay knew one thing for sure: if this is where Alex had been living in the last few years, things were worse than he thought. 

“He’s definitely lost it,” Jay thought as he clambered out of the car, making sure to take his video camera with him. The house was so much worse as he approached it, the brick walls were covered in graffiti and the windows were so shattered that they were almost nonexistent. As he stepped inside it became abundantly clear that no one has lived here in a while. A window in the very back had a tarp loosely taped over the open space and Jay felt a chill go down his spine as it fluttered in the wind. Jay turned the camera away from it and bristled when he heard the sharp crunch of broken glass beneath his feet.

So why would totheark send him here? He moved the camera around making sure to film everything in the house just in case he missed something. If Alex was hiding out here at one point in time, it was clear he wasn’t anymore. As he wandered into the side room to look around, he heard a loud bang ricochet throughout the concrete walls of the house. His breathing stopped and he booked it back to the main room to see what happened. He looked around swallowing thickly. 

Nothing. 

Jay hated that. He hated the nothingness because usually, that nothingness was always something even when it was nothing. 

Now consciously aware of every little sound around him, Jay retreated to the entryway and eventually out the door altogether. 

Nothing was here. He’d come back tomorrow.

\---

As you might’ve guessed, the girls didn’t join Jay on his journey.

Maggie called Jay that morning (Thursday, April 22nd), around 8, and explained that after some thought, they were going to be staying longer than expected and needed to grab more things.

Also not to mention that Jay came completely unprepared. All he had were his clothes, cameras, and his laptop. Maggie almost had a stroke when she found that out.

“You know you can cook food right? Or get things like fruits or vegetables maybe?” Her nose scrunched up in judgment seeing that Jay was living off of hotel food and gas station snacks. 

Jay’s face flushed and sputtered out excuses about prices and his busy schedule. Not wanting Jay to die of malnutrition, the girls offered to go back to their apartment that same day to gather healthy food, more clothes, and other necessities they forgot while Jay went back to the abandoned building. After ending the phone call, the girls went out to find breakfast to start their day off right.

“Okay, so let’s grab some water and snacks before we leave,” Brenna told Maggie as they pulled back up into the hotel after going out to breakfast.

“Sounds good to me.” Maggie hummed taking her feet off the dashboard after Brenna gave her a dirty look. 

“You’re gonna ruin my car.” She grumbled.

“C’mon, I would never plus we’re already here, so calm down.” Maggie teased as she slid out of the car and hopped up the steps. Before she even put the key card into their door, she noticed the door was ajar. She pulled away from it. “Hey...Brenna, did you leave the hotel door open?”

“I thought hotel doors usually lock themselves when you leave. Why, is something wrong?” She questioned absentmindedly, too busy putting her keys away to notice the door.

“Well, it’s open.” 

“Oh fuck.” 

“Let’s go inside.”

“Are you nuts?” Brenna hissed. 

“What if it’s housekeeping?”

“Y’know, I don’t think it is.” Brenna’s words fell on deaf ears as Maggie inched the door open.

“Housekeeping?” Maggie whimpered as the door creaked loudly. The hotel room was dark. The curtains were drawn, as the girls had left them, but there was an added element of stillness to the air. An eerie sensation practically poured out of the room as Maggie and Brenna crept into the entryway. Brenna reached over to grab the single security camera set up to watch the front door that Maggie let her bring and shoved it in her bag for later evidence. Brenna saw Maggie snatch an umbrella and practice stabbing motions quickly before delving deeper into the pitch-black hallway. 

The hallway opened up into a living room and kitchen and two rooms, one for each girl (they figured it was time to treat themselves after working nonstop for three years and got a suite). Brenna flipped the lights on and quickly examined the living room and kitchen. Nothing. Maggie motioned that she was going to check her room and, while wielding her umbrella like a bat, left to investigate her room. 

Brenna looked at the door to her room and felt her heart drop. If you looked close, you could see it was open the tiniest of smidgeons, but still, open nonetheless. Maggie flipped the light on in her room and looked around. She peered behind the door, under the bed, and in the closet. Nothing was out of the ordinary. Brenna swallowed thickly and tried to shake out her nerves. She slowly opened the door and flicked the lights on. 

Inside her room was a man. He was tall and actively rummaging through the hotel dresser drawers, keen on finding something. 

Brenna gasped audibly and the man turned around. 

Brenna remembered Maggie describing the creep as wearing a tan hoodie and jeans. But that wasn’t the disturbing part. She said he wore a black mask with red eyes and a red line sewn in, giving him a permanent frown. 

It was him. The same man from all those years ago. It had to be.

\---

With the girls out running errands, Jay decided to investigate the house (shack? house-shack?) for a second time. 

Jay wasn’t dumb (although some people would beg to differ) but he was smart enough to know that going into an abandoned building after dark was stupid.

So that’s why he went mid-day, instead of at night.

The long grass outside of the house was dead and stubbly, and it blew in the crisp air which only amplified his nervousness. Stepping past the threshold of safety, he entered the abandoned house once again. 

He let out a tired sigh “Hello?” and looked around the building to see if anything had changed from the day before. He kicked around some wood and stray pipes around. His frustration grew as he realized he may have driven all the way there for nothing. 

“There’s nothing here!” He yelled, kicking a piece of concrete by accident. He cursed to himself and hissed in pain. “What are you wanting me to see? I'm not seeing anything!" He yelled into the stale atmosphere.

“Jay?” 

Jay turned around and he couldn’t stop his jaw from dropping. He watched as Alex put a finger to his lips and pointed behind Jay. He found himself nodding slowly and began to back away into the side room. 

“Okay hold on-” Jay let out a slight shriek of surprise as he saw the white-masked man from his nightmares bolt past him with a knife. 

“Ah god!” Alex grunted and the camera was knocked out of his hands and fell to the floor. Jay watched as Alex and the masked man wrestled on the ground. Alex managed to pin him onto the ground and suddenly Jay noticed Alex’s arm was bleeding. He probably got cut from the knife that the other man held. 

“Get the cord!” Alex demanded as Jay stood there shell-shocked. A dirty look from Alex sent him running to grab the cord. He handed it to Alex and Alex proceeded to tie the man up as Jay picked the camera back up. 

“Keep him still,” Jay muttered while making sure to get a good angle on his face as he removes the mask. “Holy shit.” 

It was from Tim. 

Jay stumbled back a few steps and his hand flew to cover the front of his mouth in shock. He watched frozen as Tim began to cough and Alex motioned to something besides Jay.

“What?”

“Give me the knife!” Alex snarled. 

Jay’s eyes flashed with concern and gave Alex a disgusted look.

“No! I am not giving you the knife!” He quickly reached down to pick it up, snatching it away from Alex’s grip before he could do any real damage. 

“Turn off the camera!” Alex hissed, getting off of Tim. He moved over to grab a cinderblock and picked it up. 

“What? No! Hey, hey, hey, hey!” Jay sputtered, stumbling back away from the scene wanting to capture it all.

Alex walked back over to Tim and raised it above his head. He turned to Jay and said, “He’s not gonna follow us!” 

From underneath Alex, Tim’s eyes widened and he tried to crawl away. 

Jay narrowed his eyes and pressed his lips together, “What are you doing?” He angled the camera down and Jay watched in horror as Alex slammed the concrete block down on Tim’s leg. The snap and crack of his leg chilled him to the bone. His scream echoed throughout the building and Jay knew it was going to appear in his nightmares for a very long time. 

\---

The hooded man’s head tilted to the side as he waited for Brenna to react. His hands not only held one of Brenna’s necklaces wrapped around his gloved fingers but also had one of her shirts in his hands. She instantly recognized the shirt he was holding as her old friend Brian’s shirt that she kept around as a nightshirt.

“Hey that’s my friend’s-” Brenna choked out, eyes as wide as saucers, as the hooded man scrambled to stuff her necklace in his back pocket and the shirt back into the drawer only to turn and leap on her, pushing her to the ground.

Hearing the commotion, Maggie ran out to see the hooded man from 3 years ago shaking her best friend on the floor uncontrollably. “WHAT THE FUCK,” Maggie screamed as she began to beat the man with her umbrella and kicking him.

Brenna started sputtering pleas for her life and weakly tried to push him away while Maggie delivered a particularly harsh blow onto his upper back. 

“WHO ARE YOU, YOU SICK FUCK? LEAVE US ALONE,” Maggie yelled as the man finally let go and rolled off to the side, rubbing his back in pain.

Maggie dropped to her knees and checked for any injuries on Brenna’s body while the hooded man seized the distraction as an opportunity to run out the front door. 

\---

Jay followed Alex’s car to a parking lot located near the entrance of a nearby park and grabbed the camera that was recording on his dashboard. After opening his door and seeing Alex get out of his car, Jay immediately started yelling. “Why did you do that? What were you thinking?”

Alex stood defensively and barked back, “I did what I had to. What else was I supposed to do after he just stabbed me?”

“You broke his leg with a block of cement!” Jay shrieked. 

“I could’ve done worse and I probably should have.” Alex turned his back and began pacing. “Imagine how much shit you would be in if it weren’t for me. I mean, I managed to find what hotel you were at, what room you were at, and then get a package delivered to your door.” Alex turned back to Jay and leaned on the hood of his car. “You’re not exactly hard to find.”

“Okay so then what should I do?” Jay asked.

“First, you need to stop talking to Brenna and Maggie. You’re bringing them into something more dangerous than you’ll ever know and you’re obviously not thinking about the consequences. Second, wait for me to call you.”

“What do you mean ‘more dangerous than I’ll ever know’? They offered to help me find you.”

Alex scrunched his face up, “Yeah, and now you’ve found me so call them off. You’ve seen what that monster is, right? Do you really want it to go after them?”

“How do you know it’ll do that?”

“I know a lot of things, Jay.” 

The tone in Alex’s voice clearly told Jay to stop pushing the topic, so he switched gears. “Okay, so what do you want me to do between now and whenever you decide to call me?”

“Lay low,” Alex said as he walked to the left side of his car and got in.

“Yeah,” Jay sneered, pointing the camera at Alex starting up his car. “Great, cool. I’m great at doing that, Alex.”

Alex peeled out of the parking lot, leaving Jay alone with his thoughts before returning to sit in his car.

\---

Only a few minutes later, Jay found himself pressing his phone to his ear to call the girls about the situation at hand. “Pick up, pick up, come on, please pick up.” After a good few rings, the line clicked and someone picked up. “Maggie? Oh, thank god look we need to talk-”

Maggie cut him off, “Damn right we do! The guy who used to stalk us found our room! We’re losing our SHIT here Jay!”

“I was almost killed!” Brenna yelled.

“It’s worse than I thought.” Jay let a shaky breath out through his nose, “You both need to go back to your apartment as soon as possible.”

“And- what do you mean? What happened?” Brenna said as Maggie angled the phone toward her. After the man fled, they packed up their personal belongings and hid out in Brenna’s car. 

“When I went back to the abandoned building from yesterday, Alex was there and we got attacked by that guy with the white mask. He’s the one who broke into my house that one time and watched me sleep.”

“Wait, you found Alex? Where has he been all this time?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t know! He found me.”

“Did he say anything?” Brenna butted in.

Jay’s voice hardened, “That doesn’t matter. What matters right now is that you guys go home. It’s too dangerous for you to be here anymore.”

“What do you mean? We said we would help you.” Maggie said.

“No, Maggie, he’s right. We need to leave.” Brenna said softly. 

“Why? We said we would help and now we’re just backing out?”

“Did you forget what just happened? That guy broke into our hotel, stole my things, and jumped me! I don’t feel safe here!” Brenna burst.

The car was silent for a few moments. The energy in the air was hot and stuffy and loaded. It was as if a heavy fog settled over the interior of the vehicle and wouldn’t dissipate. Brenna slumped over the steering wheel. She gave a muffled, measly apology, and beeped the horn lamely with her forehead.

On the other line, Jay gaped at what happened. On one hand, he was glad that they wouldn’t interfere with Alex’s plan but then he felt bad. He felt guilty in some way for the fight that ensued. He never meant to start anything, he just wanted them to go home. “They’ll be safe this way,” Jay reminded himself in his head.

“You’re right,” Maggie said into the phone. “I’m sorry. Jay, we’re going home now. Good luck with whatever you’re doing.”

“We’re here if you need our help. Call us if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” Jay paused, “and I’m sorry. Stay safe, both of you.”

“We will.” The line went dead after that and Jay sighed heavily, tossing his phone in the back of his car. All he had left to do was sit and wait for Alex to contact him, and who knows how long that was going to be. 

\---

Later that day, Alex returned home and sat in front of his computer. He adjusted his glasses on his face. Apparently, the tape that he sent Jay of him and the two girls fighting didn’t stop Jay from digging deeper. Or at least didn’t stop him from involving Maggie and Brenna. 

It wasn’t enough that Jay told them to back off. They were now a liability and would have to be disposed of. After all, if Jay went missing after this, they would definitely be suspicious. He turned to his computer and began to do some deep research on the two girls. “This shouldn’t be too hard,” Alex smirked.

\---

Maggie and Brenna held each other tight as they unlocked the door to their apartment. Before stepping inside, Brenna grabbed the security camera sitting on the table in the entryway and re-wound it to make sure no one was inside. Brenna doubted the hooded man beat them back here but she wanted to be safe just in case.

“All clear.” Brenna nodded giving the okay for Maggie to step inside. They both squeezed through the thin doorway and immediately turned on all their lights. Everything was in its rightful place. “Let’s turn the radio on. Maybe we’ll feel better.” Brenna said, already switching it on. After a crackle of radio static, music began to play softly. The girls began to feel at ease as the pop song traveled around the apartment.

“-Just a second  
It's my favorite song they're gonna play  
And I cannot text you with  
A drink in my hand, eh-”

“It’s Lady Gaga!” Brenna spun loosely, “We can’t get murdered while Lady Gaga is playing.” 

“You’re so right. Murderers legally have to stop murdering when Telephone comes on.” Maggie chuckled and began to hum along shakily. She began to clean up the counters, just to do something to distract herself. 

“-Stop callin', stop callin'  
I don't wanna think anymore  
I left my head and heart on the dance floor  
Stop callin', stop callin'  
I don't wanna talk anymore  
I got my head and my heart on the dance floor-”

Brenna sang along and slid across the floors in her socks, moving around to organize things here and there. Within an hour, the girls ended up cleaning their entire apartment top to bottom while dancing to the radio. When they finished, they reconvened in the kitchen and wiped the dust from their hands. “Do...do you maybe wanna sleep in the living room together? Y’know, for safety.” Maggie asked. 

“Yeah, that’s a good plan for the night.” Brenna nodded, “I’ll get the pillows if you get the blankets.”

“Sounds good to me.” Maggie smiled. A few minutes later, everything was gathered and set up in their little living room. The girls curled up next to one another. They made sure all security cameras were on and charged and the door was double locked. 

The girls had a very restless sleep, but even so, the girls woke up and started their day.

They did that the next day.

And the day after that. 

Nothing was happening for a while so life went on. Brenna and Maggie began picking up their usual shifts at The Bean again and everything went back to normal. Days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months and there was no word from Jay the entire time. On a random day in the middle of summer, Brenna turned to Maggie and said: “I wonder how Jay is doing.”

Seconds later they found themselves calling up his number and waiting anxiously for him to pick up.

Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.

Ring. Ring.

Ring.

Jay picked up on the last ring. “Hey guys, I’m sorta busy right now.” He sounded out of breath.

“Oh okay, no problem. We can call back-” 

“Actually can you just delete my number or something? That would really help me out, guys. Thanks.” Jay hung up.

Maggie put her phone down and sucked in her cheeks, “What was that about?”

Brenna threw her hands in exasperation, “Well alright then. Nice talking to you, asshole.”

Maggie shook her head. “I’m not gonna delete his number, but still. Wow.”

“I guess that settles that.”

\---

After the strange phone call, everything was going relatively smoothly. Until one afternoon, a note was slipped under their door written in newspaper clippings made to look like a ransom note. Maggie was out working when Brenna found it and she instantly called her in a panic to make sure she was okay. Maggie said she was fine and drove home immediately. 

The note read: 

I KNOW WHERE YOU ARE.

“Well of course you do. You slid the note under our door. What an idiot,” Brenna laughed. 

Maggie stared at her in horror. “What is wrong with you?” Maggie elbowed her. “We just got a threat and you’re making jokes.”

Just to be safe, they got a few more cameras as they grew even more paranoid than they already were. However, that didn’t seem to deter the mysterious note sender because one night as the girls were getting ready for bed, all the lights on their floor went out, meaning their security cameras were out too. The girls knew that it was meant for them because for about an hour straight someone was banging and knocking on their door. The girls slept in Maggie’s room that night and cried when the banging got louder until it finally stopped. 

Another night the brunettes came home from work one day and all their cameras were gone. No signs of a break-in or anything of the sort; all the cameras just seemed to up and vanish. That meant someone had come into their apartment and stole them to send a message. 

This happened over many weeks. The mysterious person constantly messed with them from May to November. That was six months of banging, items being stolen, and pure mental torture. The entire time, Jay was radio silent with them. He didn’t call or text or anything. He didn’t even upload on the Marble Hornets Youtube channel.

Brenna and Maggie nearly forgot about him entirely until they received a frantic call from Jay on November 22nd completely out of the blue. He told the girls that they needed to go into hiding and that something had happened involving Alex. At this point, Alex was too unpredictable, and that he would call them tomorrow morning for more instructions and explain the situation further. 

That was all the girls needed to pack up their things and flee into hiding. 

\---

“You didn’t tell me it was a cabin.” Brenna murmured, staring at the measly log cabin in the small clearing, “You said it was a house in the woods.”

“What were you expecting? A four-bedroom house with a fully stocked kitchen?”

“You’re so funny, I’m laughing so hard.” Brenna scoffed, walking into the tiny one-story cabin. It was located in the middle of nowhere in the woods. It was Maggie’s family’s old hunting cabin that they kept around because there was a lake nearby, and it was absolutely beautiful in the fall. 

“Listen, I’m just glad we have a place to stay. I don’t know if I could’ve handled living in the apartment for another second.” Maggie sighed, dropping her bags by the fireplace. “Let’s put the ice cream away before it melts.” She went back to the car to grab grocery bags and began to stow them away in the fridge and cabinets.

“Here, I’ll help out,” Brenna said. She ran out to grab the last of the groceries and locked the car while she was there. Bringing the rest of the food inside, she unbagged them and passed them to Maggie as she put things away.

Maggie rested her hands on her waist when they finished and looked at their work, “I wonder how Jay’s doing. I thought he would have contacted us by now.”

“Well, I don’t know what you expected. He was silent for half a year until yesterday. He sure likes to take his sweet time with everything.” 

“I think he just wants to keep us out of danger. He’ll call soon, I know it.”

“You’re probably right,” Brenna groaned, “He knows more about what’s going on than we do.” 

“When aren’t I right?” Maggie waggled her eyebrows and stuck out her chest proudly. 

“Well, there was that one time when you just insisted that couch cushions should be called chair bits.”

“It was three am and I was tired!”

“Whatever you say.” Brenna cracked a teasing smile, “Although you’re an early riser and an earlier sleeper. You’re like an old woman.”

“Maybe a little bit, but at least I don’t smell like an old person too.”

Brenna made a thoughtful face like she was actually contemplating disagreeing with her bright-eyed friend. A look of utter annoyance and shock came across her roommate’s face, “You’re so rude!”

“Come on you know I’m kidding.” She tossed a pillow at Maggie who caught it with a huff. “Oh stop being pouty you know you love me.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” Maggie stuck out her tongue. “Let’s just focus on getting a fire going so we don’t freeze to death.” 

“Smart plan.” Brenna hummed grabbing some firewood and tossing it in.   
\--- 

This is the part of the story that many refer to as the missing seven months. 

It’s November 23rd and Jay suddenly jolted awake to the sound of a cheap alarm clock blaring a static nightmare and sat up straight in bed. He was in a pitch-black hotel room illuminated by his open laptop and glitching tv across from the bed. In the darkness, Jay noticed the window curtains blocking out the bright light outside and slowly got up to peek behind the blinds. There was nothing of interest besides a covered pool. 

Fumbling to find a light switch, Jay flipped it on and saw a camera set up facing the bed that he doesn’t remember putting there. In fact, Jay didn’t remember anything. He doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing. The last thing he can recall is finding a package outside his hotel door with two tapes inside. 

Jay turned and saw his faint shadow in the full-length mirror next to the dresser. There was a dim red light blinking from his chest and he looked down to see he was wearing a chest-mounted camera. He didn’t remember where it came from or even putting it on.

Confused beyond belief and wanting answers, he made his way to the hotel’s front desk and asked if he came in with anyone and how long his stay was. The receptionist told him he came in alone and his room was only booked for one night. Quickly deciding it was best to stay and figure out what happened to his memory, Jay booked a few more nights so he could lay low.

Hurrying back to his room, Jay sat down at his laptop and uploaded the footage from his mounted camera and stationary camera next to his bed to the Marble Hornets channel as an entry.

\---

It was a quiet night in the middle of nowhere. Well, it was quiet but not too quiet. The frogs were croaking out by the lake and the wolves were howling every so often to each other. Nights like these were usually relaxing and a great atmosphere for a toasty fireplace and warm blankets. Luckily that was exactly what the girls were doing in their cabin hideaway. 

While Maggie was perfectly at home, taking delight in the desserts they packed, Brenna sat wringing her hands on the couch. Breaking the silence she said, “Hey, can I talk to you about something that’s been bothering me for a bit?”

“Of course, what’s up?” Maggie asked from the kitchen, making herself a dish of ice cream.

“It’s probably nothing but it’s from when that scary guy broke into our hotel room in April…” Brenna fidgeted restlessly.

“What about it? You never told me what happened.” Maggie walked over and sat next to her friend.

“I know and I’m sorry. I meant to tell you sooner but it freaked me a lot and my mind kinda repressed it up until a few days ago when Jay told us to hide. It sparked up a bunch of memories I wish I could forget.”

“Hey, it’s okay. You don’t have to say anything until you’re ready.” Maggie offered a soft smile and patted Brenna’s hand. “I’m here for you.”

“Thanks,” Brenna gave a tight-lipped smile back, “So, of course, it freaked me out seeing that guy in my room but it freaked me out, even more, when I saw what he was doing.”

“What was he doing?”

“He was going through my clothes that I put away in the drawer and he was holding one of my favorite necklaces and Brian’s old shirt.” Brenna took a breath, “And when he saw me, he didn’t do anything for a while. We just stared at each other. And when I looked through the security camera, he got in so easily. He literally swung the door right open like he owned the place.”

“Oh my God, that must’ve been terrifying.”

“It was! And then he put my necklace in his pocket, shoved Brian’s shirt back into the drawer, and then lunged at me. I can still remember the air being knocked out of me so fast, it hurt so much.”

“Hun, I’m so sorry that happened, I wish I could’ve saved you sooner.” Maggie sat her ice cream down so she could reach over to hug her, “But I seriously can’t believe you still have that old thing.”

“Huh?”

“Brian’s shirt. It’s -what- almost 4 or 5 years old now right? That’s so cute.”

Brenna laughed, shifting the mood to something more light-hearted, “Yeah, it’s weird not hanging out with him anymore y’know?”

Maggie laughed with her, “Well duh I know. I mean, I haven’t seen Tim in years too… God, what’s happening to our love lives?”

“Ugh, I don’t wanna even think about it.”

“I hear you loud and clear on that. Will ice cream make you feel better?” Maggie asked, already roaming back to the kitchen.

“Yes, please. That actually sounds amazing right now.” In the meantime, Brenna opened up her laptop and went to youtube in hopes to find something funny to watch. Instead, she came face-to-face with a notification that Marble Hornets uploaded a new video. “Hey, uh, Jay uploaded a new entry on Youtube.”

Maggie paused from scooping ice cream for a second, “What?”

“Yeah. I don’t know what’s going on.”

“It’s almost midnight, what is he doing?”

“I’m more worried about why he didn’t call us. He said he would call this morning.”

“Oh, that’s right. God, I hope something didn’t happen to him.” Maggie handed Brenna her ice cream and sat down beside her.

“I bet he was probably busy and forgot to call. It’s whatever.” Brenna took a bite, “We should still probably watch the new entry though to make sure he’s okay.”

“Good idea.”

After watching the video, the girls sat in silence. “Well-” Maggie started.

“How did this dumbass get his memory wiped for only 7 months? What an absolute buffoon.” Brenna interrupted. 

“Absolute idiot.”

“That’s not how memory loss works. God, he’s so stupid.”

“Ugh, I hate him sometimes.”

Both of the girls busted out laughing and sighed contently. Slowly, a grim feeling of dread washed over them like rain, hitting them softly and then all together at once.

“Oh my God, what if he’s actually in danger-” “-What if he’s serious?” They said at the same time.


End file.
